Freeport Trilogy Five Year Anniversary Edition PDF

We’ve posted the PDF version of our Freeport Trilogy Five Year Anniversary Edition to our Green Ronin Online Store.
Freeport Trilogy Five Year Anniversary Edition PDF

Freeport Trilogy Five Year Anniversary Edition PDF

The Freeport Trilogy Five Year Anniversary Edition PDFWe’ve posted the PDF version of our Freeport Trilogy Five Year Anniversary Edition to our Green Ronin Online Store.
Freeport Trilogy Five Year Anniversary Edition PDF

Freeport Designer Journal: The Third Man

Pirate’s Guide to Freeport co-author Patrick O’Duffy has typed all the way from Australia to post a designer journal to our Freeport blog. Find out how he just can’t say “no,” and what Freeport means to him.
The Third Man

The Third Man

Patrick O’Duffy

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”
Back in mid-2005, I wrapped up work on the Thieves World RPG line (available from all fine game stores in your neighbourhood) – and, I thought, on RPG writing once and for all. I’d worked on multiple games for multiple companies in the previous few years, I’d finished on a high note with an excellent book (the Thieves World Gazetteer, buy a copy today), and it was time to take on new projects. Close chapter, move on.
A year later, Rob Schwalb messaged me: “Green Ronin are working on a new project, and we want you to work on it. Chris Pramas and I agree that you have to work on it. I’m begging you. Hell, I’m dancing naked in front of the computer right now to entice you into saying yes!”
After ordering Rob to stop dancing naked on the other side of the world, I told him that I was retired, out of the game; I’d hung up my spurs and wasn’t about to ride the range again. Out of sheer politeness, I asked what the project was, but I already knew I’d turn it down.
“We’re relaunching Freeport with a new city guide and a new beginning for the whole line.”
…five seconds later I said I was in.
Death, Madness, Terror and other Good Times
It was back in 2001 that I picked up the 3rd edition Player’s Handbook, largely on a whim. I hadn’t played D&D since I was 13 or 14, having gravitated towards other games and systems in the intervening years – but the new edition looked cool and everyone was playing it, so I thought I’d give it a try. But to run a game, I needed an adventure or two – and on the shelf next to the PHB was a slim, exciting-looking book called Death in Freeport.
That decision kicked off my first-ever D&D campaign (at the grand old age of 30!), an epic swashbuckling tale in the mean streets of Freeport. My players battled serpent cultists in the city sewers, explored lost temples in the depths of A’Val, got caught up in barroom brawls and enmeshed in political intrigues; they braved the horrors of the Freeport Lighthouse to stop Milton Drac’s mad schemes and foil the Cult of the Yellow Sign once and for all. It was wild and crazy action adventure, it was triumph and tragedy, it was looking up the grapple rules again and again and again; it was awesome.
Five years later, there had been other groups, other adventures, other campaigns, but Freeport still had a place in my imagination as the best place for grubby, irreverent swashbuckling fantasy. And now I was being offered the chance to help redefine that city, and in a way that would let even more gamers discover its power and character.
There was no way I could say no. I was hooked.
Pinning Down the Freeport Flavour
Chris and Rob gave me a lot of room to move on this project – a lot of latitude to come up with ideas and give my input into the grand vision of Freeport.
So what do I think Freeport is all about? To my eye, it’s a sword-and-sorcery setting, not a high-fantasy setting, more Conan than Lord of the Rings. Sword-and-sorcery occupies a strange middle ground between the horror and fantasy genres, stealing bits from each and mixing them together. It isn’t necessarily dark (although Freeport has shadows aplenty), but it’s… unpredictable.
I’d already spent a lot of time thinking about sword-and-sorcery fantasy for Thieves World (insert gratuitous plug), and I wanted to bring some (but not all) of those ideas over to Freeport. I re-read all of the original Freeport books and adventures, getting the feel of the city down as well as I could, and thinking about how to tweak things more towards the S&S tone. Capturing that feel was my number-one priority when working on the Pirate’s Guide; to look at every location, every NPC, every plot hook through that lens of genre and work out how to make it just right. Thanks to the decision to advance the timeline of the city, I could insert, remove or modify many elements to bring them closer to that sword-and-sorcery ideal – and God bless ‘em, Chris and Rob let me get away with it time and time again.
What is Freeport? It’s a place of grubby action and desperate adventure, where the supernatural is real but not easily controlled, where crime and greed have more sway than curses and spells, where pirates may be more dangerous than monsters, and where you live on rum and sea biscuits, not waybread and nectar. It’s horror. It’s fantasy. It’s high adventure. It’s low comedy. It’s piracy and black magic and sunken cities and mad alchemists and thievery and evil cults and political corruption and gang warfare and suspicious lumps in your fish pie.
It’s the City of Adventure. No lie.
I’m 100% certain that the Pirate’s Guide to Freeport is going to knock your socks off. If it doesn’t, Rob Schwalb will dance naked for you until you change your mind. I promise.

Freeport Books Added to Lucky 7 Sale

We’ve added four Freeport books to our ongoing Lucky 7 Sale in our Green Ronin Online Store. The top two are d20 System v.3.5-rules-compatible, and the bottom two are classic v.3.0 Freeport products.
The Freeport Trilogy Five Year Anniversary Edition (normally $27.95, now $17).
Crisis in Freeport (normally $16.95, now $7).
Freeport: The City of Adventure (normally $29.95, now $17).
Tales of Freeport (normally $18.95, now $7).

Lucky 7 Sale Update

We’ve added some Freeport goodness to our Lucky 7 Sale in our Green Ronin Online Store. Newly on sale are:
The Freeport Trilogy Five Year Anniversary Edition (normally $27.95, now $17).
Crisis in Freeport (normally $16.95, now $7).
Freeport: The City of Adventure (normally $29.95, now $17).
Tales of Freeport (normally $18.95, now $7).

GREEN RONIN TO PUBLISH HOBBY GAMES: THE 100 BEST

Essay Anthology to Feature All-Star Line Up
What are the best hobby games of the past 60 years? Green Ronin Publishing and award-winning author and editor James Lowder put the question to 100 of the industry’s most influential and outspoken hobby game designers, authors, and publishers. Their answers will be revealed this August in Hobby Games: The 100 Best, a remarkable essay collection set to premiere at the 2007 Gen Con Game Fair.
One hundred different writers were asked to select a single hobby game and make a case for its place on the list. The only restrictions were the writers could not select a title they designed, or a game in which they have a financial stake. The problem for most of the authors was limiting their selection to a single game.
"The range of games the writers chose was terrific," noted editor James Lowder. "The essays cover some titles that are familiar to everyone, but many others that will be revelations. Even the most experienced game fan will come away from the book with new titles to seek out and fresh perspectives on old favorites. And if you haven’t played many hobby games before, or only know about certain types of games, Hobby Games: The 100 Best will open up whole new worlds for you."
The list of games covered in the book will be a tightly kept secret until its release. Speculation will no doubt run rampant leading up to its Gen Con debut.
"This is a book we simply had to publish," said Green Ronin President Chris Pramas. "The lineup of essayists Jim recruited is impressive and both the authors and the games chosen cover our industry from its birth to the present day. If you are passionate about games, you will love this book."
Product Information
HOBBY GAMES: THE 100 BEST
Editor: James Lowder
Publisher: Green Ronin
Release Date: August 2007
ISBN: 1-932442-96-0/978-1-932442-96-0
Format: 400 pages, trade paperback
Cover Price: $24.95 US

In Hobby Games: The 100 Best, the top designers, authors, and publishers in the hobby games field write about the most enjoyable and cleverly designed games of the last fifty years. Their essays cover the gamut of the hobby market, from roleplaying games to collectible card games, miniatures games to wargames to board games, with titles both familiar and esoteric. These are the games that the designers themselves play, the ones that have inspired their most popular creations. Writers include such legendary designers as Gary Gygax (co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons), Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson (co-founders of Games Workshop), Richard Garfield (creator of Magic: The Gathering), and Larry Harris (creator of Axis and Allies); best-selling authors R. A. Salvatore, Tracy Hickman, Douglas Niles, and Ed Greenwood; computer industry notables Warren Spector (Deus Ex), Bruce Shelley (Age of Empires), Jack Emmert (City of Heroes), and Bruce Nesmith (Oblivion); as well as dozens of other prominent and award-winning creators, including Richard Berg, Monte Cook, Zeb Cook, Greg Costikyan, Bruno Faidutti, Jeff Grubb, Steve Jackson (US), Tom Jolly, Marc W. Miller, Alan R. Moon, Christian T. Petersen, Sandy Petersen, Mike Pondsmith, Ted Raicer, Greg Stafford, S. Craig Taylor, Martin Wallace, James M. Ward, Jordan Weisman, Stewart Wieck and Teeuwynn Woodruff. Hobby Games: The 100 Best will also feature a foreword by board game legend Reiner Knizia and an afterword by SPI founder and wargame legend James F. Dunnigan.
Editor James Lowder has authored several best-selling novels, including Prince of Lies and Knight of the Black Rose, and designed game material for a wide variety of publishers and magazines. He’s helmed more than a dozen critically acclaimed anthologies, with subjects ranging from Arthurian Britain to zombies. He’s been a finalist for the Stoker Award and International Horror Guild Award, and is a two-time Origins Award winner.

Walk the Plank with Green Ronin this Summer

News has been trickling out here and there for a while now, but we are pleased to announce an upcoming release, Walk the Plank, the card game of piracy and ambition. This family-friendly, non-collectible card game features cool art by Ramsey Hong and simple rules that are quick to learn and fun to master.
Walk the Plank is great for 3 to 9 buccaneers, ages 8 and up. Each game takes just 5 to 10 minutes to play. The game includes 68 color playing cards and a rules sheet. Walk the Plank has an MSRP of just $14.95, and is scheduled for early summer, 2007.
We have posted a designer journal entry, for the game, wherein you may learn the secret origins of Walk the Plank.
Walk the Plank Designer Journal, Part One: Ancient History

Lucky 7 Sale: New Products On Sale!

It’s still our 7th year, and you’re still lucky. Freshly added to our Lucky 7 Sale are these great print books:
Thieves’ World Player’s Manual (Normally $34.95, now $17.00!)
Shadowspawn’s Guide to Sanctuary (Normally $39.95, now $17.00!)
Bleeding Edge Adventures #1: Mansion of Shadows (Normally $11.50, now $7!)
Bleeding Edge Adventures #2: Beyond the Towers (Normally $11.50, now $7!)
Bleeding Edge Adventures #3: Dirge of the Damned (Normally $11.50, now $7!)
Bleeding Edge Adventures #4: A Dreadful Dawn (Normally $11.50, now $7!)

Freeport Designer Journal: Andy Law’s Freeport Maps

Today we posted "X Marks the Spot," a Freeport designer journal written by Andy Law, the amazing artist responsible for the cartography in our upcoming book The Pirate’s Guide to Freeport. Andy has a lot to say about creating the maps in the book. To follow that up, we’ve also posted a preview of the Freeport city map. This is well worth checking out, if you’re a fan of Freeport or just love amazing maps.
X Marks the Spot
Freeport: The City of Adventure Map Preview